Weekend in Athens

Here we are on the sound deck for Snow Patrol

It was just by chance that we ended up having a weekend away in Athens, basically because it IS who you know and not what you know!  One of the three of us knows the production manager for Snow Patrol and so off we went leaving Kalamata on Friday morning to head out to the OAKA stadium on the 3rd September to attend the U2 concert!

We took the 930am coach from Kalamata station booking open return tickets @ 36 Euro and arrived safely around 1, hoping on to the waiting bus which took us near to Omonia Square (ticket 1 Euro) and using the same ticket jumped on to the tube with a change at Syntagma to get to the nearest stop to the hotel!  Very easy!  The bus ticket which also covers the underground covers a journey is valid for one and a half hours, so a very inexpensive way of travelling around town!

Since there were 3 of us in the party we decided to go for a good hotel Crowne Plaza on Michalakopoulou Street and had the use of the Club Lounge with all the complimentary refreshments and snacks plus a great buffet breakfast next morning.   We took advantage of this as soon as we had checked in including a dip the rather small roof top pool!

The journey up to the stadium was easy but since about 80,000 people where heading the same direction it was a rather crushing experience on the underground.  Nearest stop to the hotel was Megara Mousikis and then we changed twice to arrive at the Irini stop and a short walk to the stadium.

The only complaint here is that there was absolutely no signing to show anyone arriving by train where the ticket boxes were, so there was a mass of people walking (quite a way) back and forth trying to find out where the hell the box offices were!

The concert was amazing!  We missed the first act but had decided that Snow Patrol was the one we wanted to catch before U2 came on.  After tackling the box office queues and being sent from pillar to post we got in and got our passes and then were escorted to the sound deck in order to watch Snow Patrol.  The sound deck was an experience in itself  in so much as you had all the sound travelling up from your feet and rumbling around in your chest! (see photo above) and no crowds!!!

After the end of the Snow Patrol act the sound desk was packed up by their crew and we followed the huge cases out, the crowd parted (Moses like) and we followed out to the back!!!!  and round the corner to where THE band would enter.   We were ushered to the inner circle and hence Bono and The Edge where about 2m from us!  Speechless - an amazing experience and one to be remembered until such times as the grey cells deterioate and memories have all but disappeared!

We got a lift back!  Painless but another friend waiting until the very end and caught a cab which took 2 hours to get back to the hotel (30 Euro)!!!!

Athens was buzzing and I had not been in the centre for at least 17 years, but I must confess that I am not a happy camper in crowds so it was with great delight that I arrived back in Kalamata on Saturday afternoon to an empty Market area and wandering down from the coach station towards my office on Stadiou street I saw only a handful of people; picking up my car and driving back home was another delight due to the roads being empty!  It was quite surreal! The whole experience was rather surreal!

A big thank you to my friend for having connections and letting me in on the secret!

Open return Kalamata-Athens 36 Euro
Bus/Metro ticket valid for 1 1/2 hours 1 Euro
Express coach Athens-Kalamata - approximately 3,5 hours (non stop)

Bus service from Kifissou Coach Station - to the airport (around 3 Euro) 
Bus Service from Kifissou Coach Station - to Omonia 1 Euro and underground station connection.
Taxi from Michalakopoulou St to Kifissou Coach Station (not a lot of traffic on roads) 7 Euro

Syn and Tonic with a view!

Yesterday afternoon I set off from Kalamata to visit friends within a 25 minute drive, who are now settling in to their beautiful stone house set on the hillside with spectacular views.

After the grand tour with a beautifully made glass of syn and tonic, I decided to battle with the setting up of the internet connection!  Let us just say that the computer and the modem came within inches of losing their lives!

Decided that the best solution was to sit on the terrace and admire the views, soak in the silence and sip my third syn and tonic.

Dare I say that I drove back to Kalamata with JK playing full blast and me singing away at the top of my voice.
The internet connection battle to be dealt with another day.

Only in Greece!

A Day Out Viewing Property For Sale

View from just outside Kalochori moving down to coast road and Petalidi

Another hot summer day great for holiday makers but a bugger to work in, so I decided to leave the house at 8am as a start to my road trip which would take me all the way to Finiki, near to Finikounda.

I decided that I would be nice to myself so I packed my towel and bathing suit, a large flask of ice cold water and a frappe cafe packed with ice cubes to sip at on my way.

First stop was to be the village of Kalochori which is off the Rizomilo-Pylos road (to the left) just after the cross roads at Kazarma where we can turn right to cut across to Hora.

Now Kalochori is a village that I first visited some years back and have grown to love basically because it is a true Greek village and there is absolutely nothing touristy about it. Set on the hilltop with glorious views of the surrounding countryside and a surprising good view to the sea from the main square of the village which looks down the hillside towards Petalidi.

I sussed around locating a plot of land for sale which an Athenian had bought without seeing and luckily found it, with use of the topographic diagram but also a goat herder who knew the owners of each piece of olive grove around him.

I then tried to find a village house that I had been instructed to find, photograph and market but couldn't locate it, none of the villagers knew of a house for sale (strange) and so I left that one for another day and set off to wind my way down to the coast road and Petalidi.

I normally head off out of Kalochori and take the sharp right just before the village of Paneperi, but this time I was obviously 'day dreaming' and drove straight through and found myself taking the road to the left, since it seemed to be moving towards the sea I shrugged my shoulders and decided to explore. A great idea since I discovered another country lane which wanders down the hillside and comes out exactly where I would have come out if I had taken the right turn! I also saw the view towards the sea and over to the Taygetos mountains at another angle and discoverd a very very large wooden house set on the hillside and surrounded by trees ??? as well as a neighbouring large house ???? These I will have to do some detective work on to find out what sort of property and whose property.

I was now on the coast road which takes us through Petalidi moving towards Koroni and then onwards to Finikounda and Methoni. I had instructions to head off from Nea Koroni or up from Harakopeio in order to find a hilltop hamlet called Mistraki. I decided to drive up through Falanthi and found the villages above well sign posted and a delight to explore.

Mistraki is a classified 'traditional village' and it was with great pleasure that I arrived at the beginning of the village street which is wide and paved with a sprinkling of traditional stone homes with jasmine and roses growing with abundance in every garden and all the Greek elderly ladies pottering around with the daily chores. The usual morning greetings were exchanged and the usual questions answered with a smile and I found the property that I had arranged to see. Beautiful and well worth the visit. Stunning views, stunning house with grounds and pool and great potential. I spent at least 2 hours here and then moved slowly down the hillside again taking a new route via another delightful village called Kaplani and ended up coming out on the new main coastal road just outside Finikounda.

The new road bypasses the village and you shoot past and continue on your way to Methoni. I hate this road! Sorry, there is no other way to describe it. It reminds me of the Costa del Sol back in the 70s - developements going up everywhere all concrete boxes - glorified council housing in the sun and most of the complexes only half built and looking abandoned now. Ugh! More so Ugh! after having spent 2 hours in a beautiful traditional village up on the hillside that is loving preserved.

I had to find the beach of Lampes (not difficult) and turn right to head up the hill to the village of Finiki, a village that I like apart from the fact that developers have moved in and seem to be constructing rows of concrete boxes!!! Anyways I was shown a large flat parcel of land ideal now for concrete boxes and offer an ice cold coffee in the shade of a vine of a village house with large courtyard. The Greek couple who live in the village permanantely and the wife being originally from the village of Kaplani nodded their heads and smiled when I explained my feelings of shock for the state of the village after having just come down from Mistraki.

I still had another plot of land to find, which I couldn't and since I was feeling hot and exhausted I decided that beach towel and bathing suit was to be put to use so I shot down the hillside and over the main road to the sandy beach below. Stripped off (I put on the bathing suit) and hit the sea or rather walked and walked (its very shallow over there) and then just lay in the shallow sea to cool down; wet my head and then out, towel wrapped around me, in to jeep and off back to Kalamata via Yiamgia (to see if there was much damage from recent small fire), down in to Harakopeio and back along to Kalamata

Arrived back home around 4pm feeling hot, happy with a productive day and a sneaky swim, but also hungry and exhausted. Naturally, there is no rest for the wicked (and I was obviously wicked in my youth) I had to hit the office around 6pm to make some phone calls etc.

So there you have it a day in the life of .... me!

A Summer Saturday Morning

Saturday morning and a slow start to the day due to no school on a Saturday. A coffee on my balcony, no cigarettes in sight since I stopped smoking on the 1st March, my two sons up and about, my potential seller rings to set an appointment for 11 am in order to show me his plot of land near to Santova.Eldest son goes with father to handle phones at the office and surf the internet to his heart's content! Youngest opts to accompany Mum in the jeep to see this plot of land but also to then take me for my first swim of the summer!Off we go in the heat of the morning, radio blaring and both of us singing along happily to the music. We meet up with my client and off we go driving along the coast road towards Kitries and turning off at Santova beach bridge because the land is located near to the village of Megali Mantineas. I then find myself having to turn off the road on to dirt track that seems to fall away from the asphalt. Seller assures me that jeep will go right down; being naive I always believe them, but luckily this time the truth was being told and we did get almost all the way down. Walked the last 100m to view a very overgrown plot of land which I am sure has a view to the sea but due to over/under growth I could only imagine. Instructed potential seller to get it cleared ASAP and also to give me all the paperwork, which they should have had in hand when we meet up, but had forgotten!!!So after walking down to the land and then back up to the jeep, luckily had left son to listen to music in the jeep parked in the shade and with ice bag with cold water (I am a good mum) I was not in the best of moods being very very hot and bothered. Got in to jeep and couldn't really turn on air con (yes I have air con nowadays, not that I really like using it, but it does come in handy on really really hot days) due to the uphill dirt road and ok the LADA doesn't have any problem tackling such dirt road it wasn't extreme although it did look that way coming down! By the time we got back on to the aspahlt I looked like a drowned rat and both son and seller where a bit worried about how hot and bothered I looked, but after assuring everyone that I wasn't about to have a stroke; seller went off on his way and son and I hit the beach. A cold lager for Mum and juice for my little Greek merman.Such is the life of a real estate agent in Kalamata.